- After practically declaring themselves the saviors of dub techno last year with a string of rock solid releases including Echospace’s The Coldest Season (not to mention ranking third in RA’s own Top Ten Labels of 2007 list), Manchester label Modern Love managed to press up one last twelve before the end of year break, a debut solo release from Miles Whittaker, one half of Pendle Coven and also Modern Love’s in-house DJ. Dark Days comes as quite the surprise, and a welcome return to more dancefloor-oriented material for Modern Love after The Coldest Season’s effervescent drifts.
'M-Brane' is a driving crowd pleaser that picks up where Chain Reaction and Basic Channel left off with a fierce sinoid bassline and slabs of percolating dub chords knotting the track into a dense chaotic mesh. Heavy on the low end and flooded with fizzy effects processing, it’s surprisingly heady stuff, but Whittaker’s lock-tight drum programming snaps the mix into place, imbuing it with a kinetic sense of energy.
On the flip, 'Dark Days' dials the BPM count down a notch, playing out like a dream collaboration between Rod Modell and Monolake—all surgically precise percussion and resonant pads swathed in washed out sheets of reverb. Sure to find favor with DJs ranging in persuasion from dubstep to house to minimal, let’s hope the heaviness of this EP is a sign of things to come for Modern Love.
TracklistA M-Brane
B Dark Days